Chernobyl victim ‘on cloud nine’ after Paralympic gold

Oksana Masters won her first Paralympic gold, in the 1.1km cross-country sprint skiing at the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics.

Oksana Masters of the US celebrates her victory after crossing the finish line in the women's 1.1km sprint sitting cross-country skiing final event of the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre.(AFP)

An American skier who suffered birth defects due to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and spent her early life in orphanages said today she was “on cloud nine” after winning Winter Paralympic gold.

Oksana Masters was born in 1989 in what is now Ukraine, and was then part of the Soviet Union, three years after a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl plant, sparking the world’s worst nuclear disaster.